February 19, 2007

Trying to save Shoshone

Shoshone tribe also looks to preserve languageLike the Northern Arapaho are attempting to do with the help of a five-year federal grant, members of the Eastern Shoshone are looking for ways to expand the language to children as young as three years old, in hopes that the little ones will grow up with the language and culture their elders might have forgotten.

The Eastern Shoshone Certification Committee is just beginning to recruit Eastern Shoshone language instructors who would teach children in preschool programs their native language and culture, and expand it later to elementary-aged children and their parents.

They're also looking to access money from a federal law passed in December that preserves languages once frequently spoken by Indians to pay for some of the instruction.